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An article by Charstenne Morg, posted on March 07. 2003.

First and foremost I would like to say EMI did not live up to my expectations. This I say for several reasons. It did not contain nearly as much jokes as MI or CMI, much of the music was recycled and the whole game was more of a satire than a pirate game. These are only a few reasons. While I and a few others had delivered this form of criticism earlier at the SCUMM Bar, someone told us to "stop bashing LEC". I don't remember who said this, nor does it matter. I'm not going to check who was behind that particular phrase. The person has a right to his/her opinion.

But when it comes to "bashing LEC", I would like to comment first of all that I'm not trying to bash, I'm simply voicing my opinion about EMI and listing what I didn't like.

Another thing I would like to say is that since I paid for the game (or "Santa" did, I got it as a Christmas gift), I feel I have a right to express my critique. I don't however criticize fan games since I don't have to pay for them. I don't really understand why some criticize fan games. Nobody is forced to play them. However, if a commercial game is named something with "Monkey Island", don't we all want play it? The name of the game compels us to play it because it is an "official" sequel to the story we all love. It's perfectly natural to want to know what happens next to our favorite characters. Unfortunately not all sequels live up to their expectations. Although EMI was made by LEC, it is nothing like the previous games. Why? Because LEC is just a company, a company which gets it's name printed all over the work of it's employees... which, in case you haven't noticed, are not the same as those who worked for LEC a few years ago. Some are the same, but most of MI1, MI2 and CMI's project leads and other key personnel have left.

Ron Gilbert has left. Ackley, Purvis, Land and many others have also left.
If you compare the list of people working on CMI with those working on EMI, how many people did work on both? Not many.

Why should I have any sympathies for LEC, when those who had done excellent games (in my opinion) have left the company? Personally, I associate "Monkey Island" more with the PEOPLE who worked on the first three games than with the company who has the rights to the MI series. I find it somewhat depressing when Ron Gilbert commented in an interview that he wish he could have the rights to MI so that he could do his own MI3. If MI should belong to any single person in the world, I think it should be Ron Gilbert, the great monkey himself.

The heading of this article was created and included by the author.
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Comment from Ipop

it wood be good if minkey island 5 had fighting and gore in it

Comment from bootycaller

damn shame!!

Comment from Charstenne Morgha

Duuh, whopsie! ;-}

Comment from TheScientist

For the sake of accuracy, the picture of the monkey isn't quite correct, female monkeys don't have breasts unless they are pregnant.

Comment from bundi_21

Stop putting EMI down damnit!
EMI IS THE BEST IN THE SERIES. I was actually much more dissapointed with CMI then with EMI.

EMI has the best story of all the MI's. It is also (to me) the most gripping of all of the MI's as well.

I love EMI's 3d graphics because of the comical way they are used in.

I also like using the keyboard much more than the tired point and click control method as in the previous MI's. The new control method is (taken from GF, as EMI uses the same engine) makes the game less like your traditional adventure game and more of a move forward. ADVENTURE GAMES SHOULD NEVER HAVE STOPPED USING THE KEYBOARD.

EMI IS A LEGENDARY GAME AND FAR ABOVE PAR WITH ANY ADVENTURE GAME REALEASED WITHIN THE PAST 5 OR SO YEARS, EXCLUDING GRIM FANDANGO.

And, yes I do love all the old classic adventure games also!

Comment from bundi_21

This message was deleted by the user.

Comment from Jojo Sr

EMI was indeed very crap, let's move on shall we...

Comment from Charstenne Morgha

As someone once said, were all monkeys in a way ;-)
We all love the games one way or another. There is no point in flaming each other over every little tiny thing we disagree about.
Yet I think it's good to discuss things (as long as it doesn't turn into a bar fight!) ;-)

Comment from Spit Master

I agree with Charstenne, I feel exactly the same way.
I also read the other comments and they are right in many points.
In my opinion I don

Comment from lowman

Arrr, astonishing! It's not often that you encounter an article which encourages responses that are longer than the actual article -- including responses from the author herself.

Oh yeah, and it's really cool that despite disagreements and differences in opinion, everyone is civil and respectful of each other. What a good pirate community we have here ;)

Comment from Charstenne Morgha

You don't sound arrogant, Marek.
I respect your opinion as I respect everyone else's (even those who are arguing against me) ;-).
I have to admit that I DID shoot I few blanks, I guess. ;-}
True, Clint Bajakian is a veteran. I believe you when you say some of the artists and animators have been the same. However, these are not the people who hold the upper hand in the projects.
Of course everyone who works on a game project is important, but the people doing most of the creative work are the story, design & project leads (although certain programmers seemed to have made some rather lovable contributions i.e. Murray).

Although Land did contribute some music to the EMI soundtrack many seemed to be nicked without any remixing from the previous games.
For instance on Knuttin Atoll at the beach where Tiny LaFeet stands next to the fire you can hear the exact same music as in King Andr

Comment from marek@adventuregamer

Thanks RemiO. I don't always remember the particulars of who did what.

Comment from Ben_Whatsisname

What I dislike about lec-bashing is the flow of thought I see in this article... I, personally, do not like "team" sports because people tend to focus on the big names on the team and pretty soon, it's not "Bulls vs. Lakers", but "Michael Jordan and some other people who aren't important enough to mention vs. the Lakers" - Same thing here. You guys throw out names of project leaders, ect, but there are TONS of people listed in the credits who go unsung. MIx (1,2,3, or 4) belongs to the whole team (LEC). The names of the players may change, but the game remains the same. If the game they put out is good, then the whole team should be praised. If bad, then the same applies. Don't bash a game just because one person left...

Comment from MrManager

Ok, I really just have to put my support behind what Jake and Marek are saying. (though both Stemmle and Clark were leads on Sam & Max, and Clark's version of The Dig was the final one) As I said earlier, three of LEC's upcoming games are headed by old timers, and I wouldn't be surprised to see people like Bajakian - and hopefully maybe even Steve Purcell with Sam & Max 2 - involved again. I don't think it's necissarely a valid argument to claim that EMI was bad because not enough old timers were involved.

Comment from marek@adventuregamer

Someone pointed me to this article. Interesting!

Before you can actually debate whether EMI is a good or a bad Monkey Island game (or a good/bad game, period), you actually need to get the facts straight. I'm sorry Charstenne, but I feel you are shooting blanks. I agree with you that LEC games should not be made immune to constructive criticism, even in this community. However, there are a couple of points missing here.

Firstly, Ron Gilbert is not the god or visionary people make him out to be. He is an excellent designer, however there are a lot of people involved in the production of a game. The greatness of MI1 and MI2 can be attributed to many people in the team, some of whom Jake credited below.

Besides the fact that new talent can often give a sequel project a great creative injection, a lot of veterans have worked on EMI. You mention that Gilbert, Ackley, Purvis and Land have left. Mike Stemmle and Sean Clark, who headed the design of EMI, have been with LEC from the beginning. Mike was project lead on Sam & Max, and Sean produced The Dig (or one of its cancelled versions, my memory fails me here). You mention Michael Land. AFAIK, he DID actually contribute some music to the game. Most of the music was done by Clint Bajakian, veteran LEC musician. Many artists and animators from Dig, FT, Grim or CMI worked on EMI too. Well, I could go on like this for a while. But I think this supports that the argument 'the old talent has gone' is not really legitimate.

OK so about development time. MI1 had gone through many revisions and changes. It was even put on hold for a while to finish another game. MI2 was made in roughly a year. MI3 was not made in 5 years. There was actually a large gap between MI2 and CMI as the result of Ron Gilbert's departure. Between CMI and EMI, CMI is actually probably the game with the most problems getting stuff done on time. A large part of the ending of CMI was cut to get it shipped in time for Christmas.

I really support these kind of discussions, but what is the point of discussing things when we don't know what's what? Sorry if I sound arrogant.

Comment from Haggis

EMI r00lz. *ahem*

Comment from MrManager

Also, Jake, there are 900+ accounts at TSB.

Comment from Charstenne Morgha

Whoa! What a lot of replies!
I guess I've stirred to pot now! ;-)

I think the biggest misstake they did on EMI was to put the game together too fast.
I mean when Gilbert & co did MI1 they had lots of time to do it. There were 5 years between the making of MI2 and CMI. Okay, I have to admit that I have no idea how much of those five years Ackley, Ahern & co used on the making of CMI. One thing is sure, the EMI team obviously didn't have enough time to finish EMI. For example on Jambalaya if you run past Murray you'll notice that the volume of his speach doesn't change gradually as the distance between Murray and Guybrush changes. The volume get's changed every time Murray starts on a new line.
Have you ever found a similar oddity in CMI? Maybe if the EMI team had had more time they would have fixed this.


To reply to Scummbuddy's question: I decided to do a female monkey mostly cause the monkey population would decrease radically if there wouldn't be any female monkeys. Think about it! ;-)

Comment from lowman

Arrr, while it's true that no game quite compares to MI and MI2, I don't see what the fuss is about. Personally, I was highly entertained by EMI, and maybe I'm walking into the wind here, but I thought it was far better than CMI.

Sure, Ron Gilbert didn't write it, and it goes against some of the principles of the original series (amusing though it is, why oh WHY is Guybrush afraid of porcelain?), but I found myself rolling with laughter at Dom Armato's delivery. In fact, I thought Guybrush's dialogue was far better this time around.

Also, EMI's story is better. I didn't much care about turning Elaine back to a normal person, especially since she was an inch away from punching our fancy-pantalooned protagonist. I know there were budget and time constraints, but the last 2 parts to CMI have a dogged sense of continuity, and the finale is seriously disappointing.

Then I think of EMI. The story is intriguing and well-written (with the possible exception of Herman Toothrot's origins). I do admit that the puzzles were kinda fat-free (i.e. "Lite"), but someof them were seriously clever. And the finale, while not exactly ending the way everyone wanted, was certainly epic and entertaining. LEC put quite a bit of effort into this one.

My only MAJOR gripe about EMI is that Murray was pretty much superfluous. Instead of being funny in a tragic sort of way, he was just annoying.

I do agree, though, that it would have been better if Ron Gilbert could have written the MI sequels. As it is, I have no sympathy for LEC either, because I believe that they did a good job on EMI.

Just my opinion. Me hearties.

Comment from bgmr

Hello monkey people like me :) I agree with most of what is write over here. Monkey Island I is/was the live time game, is my "first love" and I think MI2 and in some how CMI were great games, but EMI is far far way from the spirit of the MI series, I don

Comment from SeaWitch

I agree with you, Charstenne, on many point. First, I was gravely disapointed with EMI. Second, I believe that its within your rights, as a consumer and a MI fan to be able to openly and honestly express your problems with EMI. I am hoping, however, that Lucas Arts will hear our voices and should they ever make another MI game, will decide to make a game their hardcore fans can sink their teeth into. I hope they will utilize the colorful personalities of our favorite characters in a more provocative and engaging (not to mention way more hilarious) story and jokes.

Comment from Scummbuddy

why does the monkey in the picture have boobs? All the monkeys in Monkey Island have been males. Why be different?

Comment from Ralgath[queztone]

i agree remi

i think the First Shadow (reference to loom) over LucasArts has passed. Now there's a time of really cool titles ahead. Hopefully they will be as good as they sound. And let's also hope the Second Shadow will be postponed long enough.

Comment from MrManager

Other than Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2, there are other LEC games that I'm really looking forward to. RTX, for one, seems to be a pretty original game, with great graphics, and a lot of potential. It's made by Hal Barwood, too, which alongside Stemmle and Clark are old-timers who have been responsible for a lot of classics LEC.

Also note that LEC are outsourcing a lot of stuff, and hiring old employees as consultants. Who knows who will work on MI5?

Comment from Digital-Holocaust

I really don't mind LEC bringing new staff into the games, The series coud've diminished by MI2 then we wouldn't have no sequals at all, there's nothing wrong on improvising on a story or adding new ideas, it's what makes MI3 and MI4 fun to play. It almost sounds like people are trying to say that the series is being milked for all it's worth. If that was the case then I certainly would be criticising them myself. Compare the MI series to a series such as Final Fantasy or Tomb Raider...

I can -defenatly- see the difference in quality and originality from the MI series compared to the others. Why? Because the MI series doesn't stick to one interface and mass produce the same ideal in future games. I think that will be the time I shall be admitting that LEC are not worth my money.

Comment from Gabez

It

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